i want an essay on corruption

Corruption obtains when an official transfers a benefit to an individual who may or may not be entitled to the benefit, in exchange for an illegal payment (the bribe). By taking the bribe, the official breaks a legally binding promise he gave to his ‘principal’ (usually the state administration or a private company) to allocate the benefit to those entitled to it. Corruption is neither a property of a social system or an institution, nor a trait of an individual's character, but rather an illegal exchange. Nowadays scholars have abandoned the classic view of corruption as the degradation of an individual's ethical sense, or lack of moral integrity. If corruption is a type of exchange it can, at least in principle, be the subject of empirical, cross-country examination. For data, scholars turn mainly to three sources, the German-based NGO Transparency International; the World Bank, and, to a lesser extent, Freedom House. These agencies all produce large cross-national surveys and ranking of countries, although the data come with a variety of biases. Naturally, illegality makes it hard to measure corruption.

Still, a set of empirical regularities has emerged. A positive relation appears to exist between the extent of bribery and: the level of ‘red tape’; tiers of government; Spanish colonial domination; the amount of time spent by managers with public officials; the cost of capital and investment; and the degree of regulatory discretion on the part of officials. Other studies show a negative relation between corruption and economic growth; Protestant religious traditions; former British colonial status; openness to trade; current democratic government; and long exposure to democracy.

Empirical regularities are no substitute for explanatory mechanisms. Is corruption a function of red tape or is red tape a function of corruption? If corruption were a function of red tape, bribes could be an efficient way to get round red tape. Contrary to this view, many argue that in the long term corruption breeds inefficiency. Also, with multiple officials and many potential bribers, corruption can generate further corruption, leading a country to fall into a ‘trap’ where bribery is pervasive. In extreme cases, where everybody takes bribes, the concept loses analytical clout.

In accordance with its own empirical findings, the World Bank promotes policies fostering economic deregulation and liberalization, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Yet, no single recipe exists to eradicate corruption and more work is needed to isolate mechanisms that fetter this social bad.